This Place is Different
by kimicatdemon
Summary: Mercedes returns back to her town to talk with Philius about the new world.


Arrows shot out of Mercedes's guns over and over. The arrows were basic at best, but at least it was something to work with. She almost looked disgusted every time she saw her weapon "Come on… Come on… Why can't you be stronger already?" She muttered to herself. She shot some more of the surrounding monsters. They fell back quickly and either fell or ran for cover.

"Ohhh…" She cried to herself, "This is so frustrating! First I wake up weak as a child, and then I have to go through the agony of being forgotten." She relaxed a bit and looked down at the ground, "Meanwhile everyone I deeply care for is still in a sealed chamber of ice. I'm too weak to do anything about it. But… I want to help them… but how? How can I help people from a curse I don't understand?"

THUM... THUM… THUM… A loud noise echoed in the area. Mercedes had only been fighting simple mushrooms up until this point, and she never saw anything larger than them in the area… was she about to be proven wrong? No… she wouldn't be wrong… this was it. This was her chance to prove to herself that she could still take anything thrown at her. She listened carefully, trying to find the location of the noise. It wasn't in front of her or behind her… it seemed to be everywhere!

She closed her eyes and focused a bit more. The noise grew louder and louder, making it clear that it was heading her way. She turned her body a bit to the left and held her guns out. She snapped her eyes open with vigor and prepared herself for whatever decided to come forth.

The trees shook and leaves began to fall with every thud. Suddenly a large mushroom appeared from the trees! It was a good ten times larger than the rest. "_What in the world?"_ Mercedes thought. She had never seen, not heard of a mushroom this big. Then again, there was a lot in this world she had not yet seen. She held her guns firmly and regained her composure. "I am a hero…" She told herself, "I can't be scared of something like this!" She shot her arrows out of her guns and shot the monster. It let out a sharp cry of pain and turned around. It looked at Mercedes, made a frowny face and slammed into the ground hard. Mercedes lost her balance and fell to the ground in the mini quake. "Waahh!"

The mushroom jumped long and quickly over to Mercedes. She looked up and saw the monster approaching. She grabbed her guns and made a swift movement away, using her elven powers to glide across the wind swiftly. She looked back and saw the mushroom continue to jump merrily. "_Its size is too much for me. I have to think of this differently." _ She thought to herself. She looked around and saw trees, trees, and more trees. Not quite ideal considering how easily this thing smashed them before. She thought to herself quickly before realizing how much the mushroom had caught up. She fled once again to the side, riding the wind.

The mushroom seemed a bit displeased and tried to shake the ground again. "_Oh no!" _Mercedes thought. She watched it carefully as it landed and tried to flee off the surface for that brief instant. Surely enough, it worked.

"Ah! So that's how!" Mercedes grinned in delight. She turned and faced the mushroom, "If that's all you have, you're in for a nasty surprise!" She continued to shoot her arrows at the monster again. This time, she would watch it, and any time it tried to throw her off balance, she used her powers to jump off the surface and land on her feet for a continued attack.

After a small amount of time, the mushroom caught on that its attacks were not doing anything to Mercedes. It let out a small cry as it began to hop away. "H-Hey! Come back! I'm not finished yet!" Mercedes yelled. She was just about to chase after it when she heard a voice ring to her.

"Your majesty…" It spoke.

Mercedes looked around. Was she going crazy? She could have sworn she just heard someone saying something…

"Your majesty…" It said a bit more clearly.

Mercedes looked around and saw no one again, "Ah great, "she started to panic, "Now I'm not only weak, I'm hearing voices. Don't they say that the people with voices go mad or something?" She said to herself, freaking out once again.

"Your majesty, it's me!" It spoke sternly.

Mercedes blinked a bit and realized it was a form of magic speaking to her, not a person present in the area… and the one talking to her was… "Philius?"

She heard a small sigh, "Yes your majesty. Where are you at the moment?"

She answered back, the same way she used to, "W-Well I'm out side of some town. I don't know the name of it, but there are some monsters I'm training on and…"

Philius let out a small chuckle at her flustered response to himself before responding, "Do you think you can come back to town for a moment. I would like to speak with you for a moment, and by the sound of it, it seems like you have a lot to say yourself."

Mercedes made a large smile, glad to hear the friendly voice of someone familiar. She eagerly teleported back to her town. She got there and looked around. Surely enough, the place where Philius was frozen was empty, but where did he go? She looked and looked around. She didn't see movement… She kept walking slowly, "He did stay in town right?"

She heard a small noise come from the inside of her room. "Wh-What the?" She spoke out loud. Was he in her room? Why on earth would he be in… moreover, what did he just do? She made a quick jog over to her room and peeked inside. Surely enough, Philius was lying on the ground, face first. By the looks of her dresser next to him, it looked like he tried to catch himself but ended up pulling the fabric and few bottles of perfume down with him. "Philius?" She said out loud, "Are you alright?"

He picked his head up and turned a bright red, "Y-Yes your majesty, I'm fine, I just fell, that's all!" He spoke loudly.

Mercedes looked at the elf and helped him sit up, "You're still weak from the curse. Sit down and rest a bit."

"I'm not weak from the curse; I'm just a bit… sleepy that's all. It happens when you over sleep." He retorted.

Mercedes let out a small giggle on the inside. Despite being asleep for so long, Philius was just as stubborn as ever when it came to admitting he was weak. If there was something that he couldn't do or messed up on, it was ALWAYS some natural occurrence. It made her feel a bit more at home…relaxed. She sat down next to him and poked at his head, "Uh huh… care to explain why you were in my room, Philius?"

Philius returned to the shade of red from before, "Y-Your majesty, I was just checking to see if you were in here! You know I wouldn't come in here under normal circumstances!"

Mercedes laughed a bit, "I'm teasing, Philius. Take a joke." She knew Philius wasn't the sort that would go into another woman's room under normal circumstances anyway. She watched Philius calm down a bit and relaxed a bit more. She could tell just by looking at him that he was pretty tired though. Perhaps the curse wasn't fully off of him yet? She couldn't remember how tired she was when she first woke up because she was too panicked about how weak she had become. She looked up at the harp in her room. Then her eyes traveled around. The houses in her town didn't have roofs, as the weather was wonderful year round. She was suddenly realizing how strange this would seem to the new world.

Philius took a breath and broke the silence. "So your majesty, you have had some journeys while I slept?" He asked.

Mercedes sighed, "Oh Philius, you don't even know…" She looked at him, "No one remembers us at all! I go out and I'm confused for a human!"

Philius jumped a bit at the last part, "A human? How dare they even think that for—"

"What's worse is that it was a fairy." Mercedes blandly added on.

Philius gave her a look of shock. Almost total disbelief. He kept quiet and allowed her to continue.

"I've been doing little jobs here and there to get information on everything as much as I can but… I think… I think more time passed then we assumed." Mercedes muttered out. "I can't determine how much time has or has not yet passed. For all we know the grand ruler of this place could be some… squid like…alien thing!" She whined.

"N-Now, your majesty, I don't think it would get to that exten…" Philius started up.

"You don't understand!" Mercedes remarked. "There are pigs wearing armor and green evil eyes."

Philius's look of disbelief came back to his face. Mercedes was almost certain he was trying to picture this. "I…I can see the green evil eye… I think… but a pig wearing armor?"

"They're much smaller now too. You don't even want to know the fate of snails." Mercedes spoke.

Philius looked at Mercedes, "Ah… how much time do you think has passed then?"

Mercedes looked towards her door envisioning the waterfall at the front of town. "Longer than a century." Mercedes muttered. "When I woke up, the seal was gone."

Philius's eyes widened up a bit, "The… The seal was gone? And no one broke in?"

Mercedes curled up a bit, "Maybe we were just forgotten…"

"Your majesty, I don't think that's the case, why would anyone forget you! You helped seal the black—" Philius started up.

"It doesn't even seem like anyone remembers him either." She added. "I tried asking if anyone knew what the fate of the Black mage was, but no one seems to know the guy."

There was a moment of silence. Mercedes was almost a bit nervous of how he would react to this. Danika would be fired up, Astilda would be ever calm about it, but Philius was always the strange one to her. She never knew what really set him off and what didn't.

He let out a rather strong sigh, "Well, it seems we have a lot of catching up to do your majesty." He said, "I suppose the best start would be to unseal the other elders, but I'm not even sure how I was unsealed."

Mercedes continued to think, "Hmmm… I can't say I know either. I just sort of woke up in here…"

Philius looked at Mercedes, "…Were you alright when you woke up?"

Mercedes looked at Philius with a confused face. That was a bit of a subject change. "W-Well, the only thing that was really hurt that I can recall was my pride. " She started off. Then she slipped into a whine, "It still hurts."

Philius chuckled a bit, and patted her on the head "Don't worry your majesty, I'm sure you'll be stronger than before in due time… You are our queen after all."

"I wonder about that Philius…" She sighed, "I let you all down. This whole situation happened only because I was careless…"

Philius looked at Mercedes. She was clearly upset over this whole curse ordeal, after all, who wouldn't be? It didn't exactly make Philius feel too happy as he watched the ice cover Astilda and Danika in the past. In the end, all that remained was to move forward. "Don't be down your majesty." Philius remarked. "No one in this town will ever blame you for what happened. You did what needed to be done and it's as simple as that."

Mercedes shook her head and jumped up, "No Philius, you don't understand! This is my fault! I caused this town to be cursed and innocent lives to be victims to the black mage." She started to pace around, "I didn't even stay in Minar with my comrades. I fled here. I'm such a coward… I'm a coward and I know it!" She looked down at Philius "I deserve to be forgotten." She said with a weak voice with tears forming in her eyes. "No one needs to remember a failure like me."

Philius looked at Mercedes and took a small sigh. He worked himself to stand up and sat her down on her bed. "Your majesty, you're getting too worked up for your own good. You must remember, even now, while being frozen, the people of this town count on you." He looked at the queen. "I am no different. I still count and depend on you to be strong and there for everyone."

Mercedes looked at Philius. She felt herself slowly calm down a bit as his words reached her. "Philius…" She started up.

Sadly, luck was not with Philius and his body gave out to the side effects of the curse. He ended up collapsing again, only this time, Mercedes caught him before he had a full face plant on the floor again.

Philius looked at a wall, avoid eye contact with Mercedes. She noticed he had a bit of a frustrated look on his face and he carried a rather stricter tone of voice, "I'm being serious. Do NOT oversleep." He said before falling asleep himself.

Mercedes looked at the body of the now sleeping Philius. What was she supposed to do now? He had just passed out in her room, and there was no way she could carry him all the way to him dorms. That was a bit further into town. She couldn't exactly lay him on her bed either, as that was a bit of an elven taboo to have a man that wasn't your own sleep in your bed. She thought for a moment before reaching over and grabbing one of her pillows and the blanket. "We can't have guys on our bed, but I can move my bed…!" She said.

"…To the floor!" She said enthusiastically. She looked down at Philius as he slept a bit. "I hope he doesn't get neck cramps." She sat down on her bare mattress and began to think a bit. Philius said he was counting on her, and that the rest of the people were too. She… she could trust this, right? She was still worthy of being the elven queen, right? She almost wanted to play her harp and ask the grand spirit right away, but with Philius sleeping, that didn't seem too bright. She sighed a bit and looked at her bed. "At this rate, I wonder if I'm just going to sleep alone in this bed forever." She sighed, "I don't wanna date a fairy!" she huffed before slamming herself on the mattress.

She watched the petals from the spirit tree fall into her room. The sky was blue, the sun shined brightly, and the wind was calm. Everything seemed so normal in this small room. But on the outside, it was frozen, with not a soul about. Mercedes grabbed a falling petal from the air and looked at it. The petal was healthy too. She smiled as she let the petal slip on to the ground and decided to enjoy the sunlight in her favorite manner. By taking a nap.

A few hours passed. Mercedes was awakened by a nudge. "Your majesty."

Mercedes opened her eyes. "Hmm?" She jumped up a bit and looked around surprised. "Oh…right…"

"Hmm? What?" Philius asked.

"I was about to ask you what you were doing in my room again…" She spoke in an embarrassed tone.

Philius blinked bit and handed her bedding already folded and stacked neatly, "Ah, this here is for you." He said in an embarrassed tone.

Mercedes laughed, "Oh don't worry, it's not like you were on my bed or anything." She took them back merrily. She set them down behind her and stood up.

"You seem like you're in better spirits." Philius cheerfully remarked.

Mercedes looked at Philius, "Yeah…" She looked at her door way, "You're right. These people do need me. I have a town I need to save!" She spoke with renewed energy.

Philius laughed a bit, "Well, I'm glad to see you are doing better." He said, "Ah that reminds me, I think I might realize what might have caused only me to be uncursed."

"Hmm?" Mercedes asked eagerly.

"Of the three elders, I happen to be the strongest, with the only one above me being you." He pointed out, "I think it may have something to do with how strong an individual elf is." He turned to Mercedes, "But since we are linked to you, it could be that you becoming stronger is speeding the process up. "He waved his hand, "This is a theory, but I think it's the most practical. It took you a long time to wake up, and shortly after you did, I was able to wake up."

Mercedes thought about his theory. "So… if I get stronger… then I can boost everyone out of the ice?"

"If this theory is true, then yes." Philius remarked.

Mercedes slapped her hands together, "Then I have to go train!" She said out loud. She started to walk out with Philius following behind her, "So… uhh… quick question, how are you feeling? Still tired?"

"Hardly." He remarked quickly.

"Ad don't worry, I won't ever oversleep, okay?" Mercedes confirmed to him as well.

Philius got a confused look on his face, "Wha-?"

Mercedes laughed a bit, "Hey… Philius…I have a question."

"Hmm? Another one?"

Mercedes stopped, "This one's a bit more serious." She looked at him in the eyes, "Do you think you can come help me train?"

Philius looked at Mercedes and quickly turned red, "W-Well, you see your majesty, the truth is, I'm not really TIRED tired, but I could easily still be TIRED if I get too worked up and then I don't think I would be very helpful and-"

Mercedes stared at Philius as he went on and on about something. He was trying to make some kind of point but she wasn't getting it.

The conversation was broken by the sound of something breaking.

"Huh?" Mercedes looked over in the direction of the noise. Philius stopped his talking and looked over as well. "What…was that?" She asked.

Philius and Mercedes walked carefully over to the noise and opened their eyes quiet wide at what they saw. Danika was rubbing her head and sitting on the ground, with bits of ice lying all around her.

"Danika!" Mercedes yelled out happily. She ran to reunite with her friend with Philius following from behind.

Mercedes ran up and gave Danika a large hug. "Hey hey!" Danika remarked out of shock, "I'm up!" She looked at Mercedes and up to Philius, "So… uh… what's up?" She said in a confused tone.

"A lot." Mercedes said cheerfully. As she started to speak with Danika, she noticed Astilda's ice begin to break.

Mercedes wondered what could have caused the two of them to unfreeze so fast, considering she hadn't trained since Philius woke up. Was it her resolve from before?

She didn't know, and she didn't care. She just had to keep moving forward, no matter how strange this world was to her. If she was forgotten, she would make herself known again. She was a hero after all, so it shouldn't be that hard…


End file.
